No more urge to splurge? Millennials are taking austerity vows to curb consumption

As lifestyle spending becomes the norm for most urban Indians, many are choosing to take the other wayIpsita Basu | ET Bureau | September 23, 2017, 09:32 IST

In June this year, Sahana Charan took an austerity vow for six months. This included no eating or ordering food from outside, no visiting malls or buying new things which are not essential to everyday living, no luxury travel or holidays, no haircuts, cosmetics and new clothes.

Today she is eight kg lighter and has neat savings from her salary. “I came across this concept on the Internet and it kept playing on my mind. After six months of debating and preparing, I took the plunge. Though I was unsure of it at first, I have never felt so liberated,” says the 41-year-old Chennai-based communications professional.

As lifestyle spending becomes the norm for most urban Indians, many like Charan are choosing the other way, sometimes for a fixed period of time, sometimes forever. They are choosing to live the simple life. While for some the change happens overnight, triggered by self-realisation, for others it takes months of preparation and actualisation.

Pushed by a booming e-commerce industry and mall culture, Indians have moved far from their repair and reuse habit. In the past decade, the country has followed high consumption patterns found in the West, says Sowyma Reddy, 34, activist and Youth Congress leader from Bengaluru.

Reddy, who follows the repair and reuse principle, went on an anti-consumerism vow during her stay in New York for three years. This was in keeping with the freeganism principle: limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.

Bengaluru-based Maya Kilpadi, 32, founding editor of Eartha, an online platform for stories and resources on environmental sustainability, declared a self-imposed ban this year. “I was addicted to online shopping. I was so disgusted with all the packaging material that comes via ecommerce that I just decided to stop buying anything other than food,” says she.

Instead of buying the muchneeded warm clothes and trekking gear while on a trek to the Himalayas, she choose to borrow from friends and companies that rent gear. She hopes to up the ante in the coming year with higher goals. “I realised that living without big luxuries is just a matter of habit,” she says.

While the depth of going off the grid from high consumption habits varies from person to person, living a life of mindfulness is ‘liberating’ many. Says Delhi-based Ritu Mathur, a natural farming consultant, who gave up a 15-year-old career in IT and spends most of her time on a farm near Gurgaon, “We are plateauing on consumerism. Slogging five months for a three-day vacation is no longer giving us the joy that we need.”

The shift in urban mentalities is due to many reasons, says Ajanta De, counsellor and founder of InnerSight, a counselling centre. “People have begun to question their pursuit of happiness and the divide between needs and wants. Early deaths due to exhaustion and lifestyle diseases that have taken away young lives are making people think about pursuing what the society terms as success,” she says.

Menaka Ramanan, 36, gave up her eight years of corporate career in Bengaluru to pursue mindful tourism in Wayanad, Kerala. The change came about when Ramanan was diagnosed with an illness four years ago and she decided to go completely natural. Today she only buys from small farmers, uses only home-made cosmetics, buys hand-spun cloth once ever quarter or as needed. “My medication has reduced by 25% and I am fitter than ever,” she says. Unlearning urban living and giving up on harmful consumer products have been the best decisions of her life, she adds.

Perceived as different is not a deterrent to the modern-day fakirs. Mumbai-based Piyush Shah is a business development executive with a large Indian company. Despite the numerous sales calls and client visits his job demands, Shah chooses to travel on his foldable cycle. “I am not bothered by opinions anymore. I choose to live the way that makes me happier and healthier,” says the 43-year-old who for the past four months has moved to a strictly raw food diet. His cycle, says Shah, which raised eyebrows has now become an icebreaker.

According to Ramnath Narayanswamy, senior professor at IIM Bangalore, it is in the nature of evolution that crisis creates a consciousness that seeks to address it. Aware and evolved Indians are increasingly becoming conscious of a world where resources cannot be replenished. “We are witnessing man-made disasters in recent years like floods, earthquakes and cyclones. A growing section of urban consumers is now asking questions and working to promote a sustainable lifestyle that is less dependent on pleasing outer senses,” Narayanswamy says.

So, is this generation rediscovering Gandhi’s ideals?

“Gandhi’s swaraj metaphorically meant ruling oneself at an individual level too. Each generation redefines this idea and realises that it has to reinvent the idea of a self-sustained village where man and nature have to coexist if at all both have to live happily. Gandhi is rediscovered by the wise young ones today,” believes director of the Centre for Gandhian studies, Bangalore University, Dr Nataraj Huliya.